The Ravenpuff Chronicles
by Dena Katrina
Summary: Luna Lovegood's cat has gone on holiday... in the Hufflepuff commons. Ernie's cat befriends him. This is not their story. It is, however, the beginning of a story of a Loony girl from Ravenclaw and a Prefectly boy from Hufflepuff...
1. the incredible disappearing cat

**The Ravenpuff Chronicles**  
by Denajane  
**  
chapter the first:  
**the incredible disappearing cat**  
**

Luna Lovegood was rather frantic, in such a manner that only Luna Lovegood herself could accomplish.

She was preparing to head home for the Easter holiday, and whilst in the process of packing various oddments -- lime-flavoured quills, striped toesocks, tattered copy of Wuthering Heights, and her pet biscuit tin, Heathcliff -- she realized that she had not heard the jingle of her cat's collar in some time.

She checked under her bed, and in her trunk and in her bookbag. The sound of footsteps hurrying up the stairs made her turn her head, but as her cat did not tend to wear trainers anymore, she did not expect him to appear. Instead, Ava Bradley, one of her roommates, came rushing through the door, dressed in her Quidditch robes and looking rather out of breath.

Ava was _not_ one of Luna's most favourite human beings, and Ava would readily say the same about Luna. Without so much as a greeting, both girls spoke at once: "Have you seen--" and immediately stopped, staring at one another. Ava was silent, staring at Luna with a raised eyebrow. "What?" she asked after a pause, as if implying _can't you see I'm in a hurry?_ Ava was always in a hurry.

"Have you seen my cat anywhere?" Luna finally asked.

Ava scoffed at her, rolling her eyes. "_I_ didn't take him, if that's what you're implying," she said. Luna was constantly posting lists of things that she was missing around the dormitory and common room, and Ava always took this rather personally.

"I did not say that I thought you did," Luna replied calmly, looking at Ava with as much of a glare as she was capable of, considering her usual demeanor. "I simply asked--"

"I haven't seen your stupid cat," Ava said impatiently. "Have _you_ seen Fawcett anywhere? We're supposed to head to the Pitch for practice and she's making me late."

Luna stared at Ava for another moment before shaking her head. "I have not seen her since arithmancy," she said, leaving out the part about Shannon's plan to go to the library to work on a project for ancient runes. She wasn't exactly lying. And Ava was not exactly the most pleasant person. So she did not feel bad.

Ava sighed. "If you see her... tell her I'm going to kill her," she said before turning to run back down the stairs.

"If you see my cat," Luna said at her back, "tell him that I would appreciate him emerging from whatever state of hiding he has found himself in, because--" She cut herself off, as she was rather sure Ava had not been listening to her in the first place, but also because she was now out of earshot anyway.

After a search of the common room that proved entirely fruitless, Luna plopped herself down in her favourite armchair and thought. It wasn't as if Lucian had been carried off in the night by frooples -- it was the wrong time of year. He had to be around the castle _somewhere..._ and with a sigh, she returned to her dormitory, took out some rather bright blue parchment, and began to make a new missing items notice.

**

* * *

LOST:**  
One Black Cat  
wearing Blue Collar w/ Bells  
(may or may not be wearing trainers)  
ANSWERS TO LUCIAN FAUST LOVEGOOD  
If Found Please Return (in person) to  
LUNA V. LOVEGOOD  
Ravenclaw

* * *

By breakfast the next morning, just about anyone who was paying attention knew that Luna Lovegood's cat was, indeed, missing. Ernie MacMillan, however, was not paying attention, and was still rather sleepy, but Hannah had insisted he come to breakfast that morning. They hadn't been talking lately, and if she wanted to see him now... well, it would be his last chance until after the Easter holiday to set things straight with her, so he'd agreed. 

He made his way down to the Great Hall rather somnambulistically, not really aware of what was going on around him until he was stopped short by a piece of bright coloured parchment was thrust in his face with a picture of a rather sadistic-looking black cat glaring up at him.

"Um, thanks," Ernie said, blinking once and reaching up to take the parchment lest he receive a papercut across the bridge of his nose. He read it through bleary eyes before looking up at the person who had thrust it upon him -- Loony Lovegood herself.

"Although I cannot imagine how he would get all the way down to Hufflepuff," Luna said brightly. Honestly, was everyone a morning person but him?

"I'll keep my eye out," Ernie mumbled, making his way past Luna to the Great Hall.

He wasn't going home for their week off. He never had for Easter. Christmas hols were, of course, spent at home, but he didn't see the point of taking a week off in the middle of the spring. On the other hand, having a week's break from classes was entirely welcome, considering his workload this year, and his duties as Prefect. It may have been nearing the end if the year, but he needed to keep himself up to his personal standards: despite not having O.W.L.s or N.E.W.T.s to worry about this year, there _was_ the fact that he was in the running for Head Boy, which left him with no time for slacking off.

Sixth year was proving to be quite odd, though. He'd accidentally admitted to Hannah in February that he liked her, and since then it had all been downhill. Six years of best friendship had culminated in one botched date in Hogsmeade, and a series of awkward moments and avoided glances. They had barely spoken in weeks, as Ernie had lamented to Justin Finch-Fletchley and Megan Jones whenever he'd enter the Hufflepuff commons to see her stand and retreat for the girls' dormitories.

Megan had proved to be a useful asset (and, in doing so, a very good friend, providing him with plenty of good conversation, advice, and colouring books galore), which helped him get his mind off of Hannah, but she wasn't a Hannah-replacement. For one thing, that would just be mean -- Megan was his friend, too, and would be even without the loss of Hannah... but then again, no one could replace her, either.

And yet, he was still rather surprised when he looked up from the charmed blue parchment to scan the Hufflepuff table to not see Hannah anywhere.

Megan, however, was sitting and reading that morning's edition of the Prophet over her pancakes and cocoa. Ernie sat down across from his redhaired friend, and she looked up at him, eyebrows raised. "Ernie MacMillan at _breakfast_? It's the end of the world, isn't it?"

"Have you seen Hannah?" Ernie asked, rather abruptly. "I mean, hi Megan. How are you this--" (he yawned) "--rather obnoxiously bright and early morning?"

"I'm all right," Megan replied calmly. "Nothing being blamed on Mum today, so I'd say it's a good day to be a Jones. And no, I haven't seen Hannah. Should I have?"

"Well, you do sleep in the same room as her," Ernie replied, his brow furrowed. He reached and poured himself a glass of milk. "I was supposed to meet her for breakfast. She wanted to talk."

Megan shook her head sympathetically. "She was up and out before I even got up this morning," she said with a sigh. "Apparently she's--"

"Still avoiding me," Ernie finished for her. "I don't get it! What did I _do_? She said herself things wouldn't get weird, and I was all set for them not to. Girls are stupid."

"Hey!" Megan's voice was trying to sound indignant, but she couldn't help but smirk at him.

"Sorry," Ernie apologized, shaking his head. "I didn't mean--"

"It's okay," his friend said with a smile. "I know what you mean."

"Are you going home for Easter?"

"You're good at abruptly changing subjects this morning, you know that?"

"It's early. I'm not used to this," Ernie said. He generally slept as late as he possibly could while still making it to class on time. He loathed being late... but he loved what little sleep he _could_ get. "And you didn't answer my question."

"I am going home," Megan said with a nod. "I didn't get to for Christmas hols, after all," she added softly, looking down at her paper again.

Ernie bit his lip. "Right. That makes sense." He didn't want to dwell on a painful subject for any longer than he needed to... He stood up from the table, abandoning his glass of milk."Well, if I don't see you before the train leaves, have a good holiday. I'm staying here, and going back to bed while I still can."

"You can keep your eye out for Luna's cat," Megan said, handing him the parchment that he had been ready to abandon on the table along with his glass of milk.

Ernie snorted a bit, taking it from her and shoving it in his pocket. "Yeah, thanks." He waved goodbye to Megan as he made his way out of the Great Hall, past Luna, who was still passing out fliers to everyone who entered (although she was currently chattering with Ginny Weasley, with whom she was good friends, and allowing people to sneak in without being attacked by her persistance).

Ernie reached the entrance to Hufflepuff and gave the password, glad to be almost back to his dormitory. He fancied his bed still being nice and comfortably warm as he'd left it before heading down to breakfast...

And as the portrait hole swung open, a flash of something black and jingly whizzed past his feet, taking up residence underneath the first armchair it passed...

**

* * *

**

**author's note the first.**

Hello and welcome! I am Dena, your friendly neighborhood crackshipper, and this is a story based on the first RPG that me and my best friend Amy were ever in. (She has stories up on here somewhere too... you should go read them. Find MaySoFarAway in my reviews, because she WILL review. Because she loves me.)

ANYWAY THE POINT BEING this... is based quite a bit on our extensive RP logs of Ernie and Luna and how they came to be. We enjoy our slightly ridiculous ship, thank you. I'm posting this firstly because someone reviewed my E/L ficlet to say they'd never read Ernie/Luna before, and I needed to remedy that... and also, because Miss Amy is writing the doomiest AU-version of the end of said RPG (which was called Evinco -- the game, that is, her fic, incidentally, is called _A Captive Path _and you should go read it). And thus I needed to balance out the doom with a little bit of fluff. MUCH MUCH CREDIT goes to Amy, and to Evinco in general, for the characterizations of everyone but Ernie, really. I wouldn't be able to write Luna's loonyness without her.

And I don't own any of these characters. JKR does. I just like to write about them. And stuff.

Anyway. This is the longest author's note ever. Hope you're enjoying the story. Leave me lots of reviews and I'll write more, and faster. XD Ta!

-Dena!


	2. a ravenclaw feline in hufflepuff

**chapter the second.**  
a ravenclaw feline in hufflepuff

"Oh, you have _got_ to be joking," Ernie mumbled, mostly to himself. He crouched down on the floor, looking beneath the armchair the cat had hidden itself beneath. And... to his surprise, there wasn't a single jingly black cat to be found, but instead a rather familiar-looking gray one. "Aristotle?" Ernie said, reaching to drag the unwilling feline out from his hideaway. "How did _you_ get out of the common room?"

Aristotle -- Ernie's _own_ cat -- looked up at him with an "I didn't do it" face, before meowing loudly to be put back down. "Dumb cat," Ernie mumbled at his retreating form. The cat was a few years old -- he'd gotten Tot second year, when he was just a kitten -- and had always been somewhat... special. Very quirky. Very annoying. Ernie was usually glad to let him prowl around the common room, if it meant that he'd be left alone in the dormitory.

He looked around the abandoned common room one last time, just to make sure he really hadn't seen Luna's cat, before heading back to his dorm. Hopefully he'd be able to sleep, even with so many interruptions...

He reached the sixth year dorms, which had been rather quiet and desolate when he'd left for the breakfast that didn't happen, but now his roommates were up and moving around. Justin was awake and packing his things for home, and Wayne Hopkins was on his way out the door, a stack of blue parchment in his hand. "Here," he said, handing one to Ernie before he was even through the doorway.

Ernie glanced at what Wayne was offering; it was a replica of the one he'd received from Luna. "Already got one, thanks," he said, shaking his head.

"I am helping Luna Lovegood with her search," Wayne said cheerfully. _He_ was staying for the week, too. Ernie couldn't decide if he was glad to have company, since Zach and Justin were both leaving, and he wasn't sure what Francis was doing yet... but Ernie assumed that he'd be leaving, too. "See you later, Ernie!" Wayne said as he headed out the door. And on _that_ note, spending a week with Wayne Hopkins was somewhat frightening. Wayne was good friends with Luna. In all of their oddities, the two of them made a good pair.

Justin finished packing his things, making a bit of small-talk with Ernie as he did so, but eventually he had to get himself to the Great Hall to prepare to head home for the week, waving his goodbye to Ernie and leaving him alone to try to nap... but by that point he'd already been awake for so long that it was starting to look rather hopeless. He tried to read for a bit, and had almost drifted off when the dormitory was suddenly invaded by the sound of racing paws and the tell-tale yowl that could only be Aristotle.

"Tot!" Ernie said crossly, hoping the stupid cat would calm himself down -- except a cat that certainly wasn't his jumped up onto his bed and stopped in its tracks, staring at him for a second. "You're not Tot," Ernie added, sitting up and reaching for the collarless black cat. Despite the lack of a belled collar, he was rather sure that it was Luna's missing one, considering he didn't know of anyone in Hufflepuff with an all-black cat. Hannah's cat had white markings. He scratched the cat behind its ears before looking down at the floor to see Tot sitting there, looking up at Ernie rather expectantly, flopping his tail back and forth.

Letting the black cat go, it jumped down to where Tot was, sizing him up for a moment before lunging and biting him. The two cats wrestled for a moment before taking off running once again for the stairs. Ernie rolled his eyes and let them go. Justin had already left; that meant the rest of the homebound students probably had as well, so there was really no rush in getting an owl off to Luna to let her know the cat was safe. He'd get around to it... eventually.

* * *

"Ernie MacMillan!" Wayne said rather breathlessly, running up the stairs to their dormitory later on that morning. Ernie opened his eyes, not even realizing that he'd drifted off finally, and wondering how long it had been since he'd fallen asleep. He looked at Wayne, sitting up and rubbing his eyes, and wondering slightly just _why_ Wayne always felt so compelled to use everyone's full names all the time. 

Wayne waved something at Ernie -- a something that made a jingling sound as he did so. "Look what I found in the common room!" he cried excitedly, his face looking more than somewhat concerned. "I believe this belongs to a certain missing cat from Ravenclaw..." He trailed off, clearly fearing the worst.

"Oh... yeah," Ernie said, running a hand through his hair and trying to wake himself up fully. "Uh... I saw Luna's cat a bit ago. He was chasing Aristotle around. I was going to send Luna an owl later on this afternoon."

"You found him?" Wayne said, his expression changing to a grin. "That is wondiferous news! Luna will be so relieved! "

Ernie nodded, yawning a bit as he did so. Wondiferous news indeed. Except that it meant now Tot would be running around twice as much with his new friend, and the problem of Wayne Hopkins talking to him twice as much as usual was still rather imminent. Hopefully he'd get tired of Ernie's one word answers and nodding eventually...

"So does that mean you will be looking after Lucian while Luna is away?"

"What?" Ernie looked up, his eyes wide. He hadn't really thought about that. "Why me?"

"Well, you found him, after all," Wayne said matter-of-factly, "and if your cat has befriended him, the least you can do is allow their friendship to prosper! They can be like brothers!"

Ernie found himself just staring at Wayne again. He sighed, looking up at the ceiling for a long moment. "I suppose," he agreed, looking back at his roommate. It wouldn't be too hard leaving some extra food out for the other cat, anyway. And he _was_ planning on writing to Luna. Eventually.

* * *

The train ride had been rather fretful without Lucian there. Heathcliff had kept her company, sensing Luna's unease and becoming quite the overly-affectionate biscuit tin. She was undeniably glad to see her father at King's Cross when he'd come to retrieve her, but her missing cat was still on her mind for the rest of the day, and she kept to herself when they returned to their house in Ottery St. Catchpole. 

She opted to go to bed early instead of seeing what Ginny Weasley was up to that evening, telling herself that she'd have all day tomorrow and for the rest of the week to see what Ginny Weasley was up to.

She was woken up rather early the next morning by an owl pecking at her window. She opened her window to accept the owl's letter -- it was addressed in Wayne Hopkin's rather familiar scrawly script! A letter from Wayne was an unexpected surprise, but perhaps he had news about Lucian. She thanked the owl and opened the letter, and was greeted with a much more conservative print -- not Wayne's at all, but instead... that of one of his roommates.

_Luna,_

_Hi there. This is Ernie MacMillan, from Hufflepuff... you gave me a notice about your missing cat this morning._

_Anyway, er, I think I've found him. In the Hufflepuff common room, of all places. I can get him back to you, I guess, but since you're already gone for the hol, I__ don't mind looking after him and making sure he's fed til you get back. He and my cat Aristotle have been following each other around all day... I think they're sort of best friends now. _

_I hope you have a nice Easter. At least you don't have to worry about your cat anymore, right?_

_Ernie MacMillan_

_Hufflepuff Prefect_

Well! That was good news indeed (although why the letter was addressed by Wayne and yet written by Ernie confuddled her slightly, but she could ask Wayne about that later. For now, she was much too relieved about her cat, writing a quick thank you note back to Ernie before leaping out her bed and down to breakfast with her father, followed by a bicycle ride over to the Burrow to share the news of her good fortune with Ginny.

* * *

**author's note the second.**

It's been kind of forever since I updated this. I suck. But I have gotten back into my Ernie lately, and getting back into your character's head is always good for inspiration when trying to write a fic XD

The next part may be up rather soonly. Hopefully. Tonight would be totally wishful thinking... haha.

Dena!


	3. space cadet

**chapter the third.**  
space cadet.

By the conclusion of the Easter holiday, Ernie couldn't wait for life to get back to normal. It had indeed been a relatively relaxing sort of week, but he was definitely longing for... well, normal Prefect rounds, and classes, and homework, and all of the rest of his overly-busy schedule. He'd attempted to write to Hannah a couple of times, but hadn't ended up sending any of them. He still wasn't sure what had happened, or what to say, so he just... didn't.

His third failed attempt to write to her had occurred on Wednesday, halfway through break, when he remembered that he had completely forgotten to mail his note to Luna about finding her cat. He'd written it, he knew that much -- but he couldn't remember to save his life where he'd put it. After tearing through every stack of parchment he had, and several notebooks, and even his trunk, he finally asked Wayne if he'd seen the letter anywhere.

"I took it to the Owlery when I went up there the other day," Wayne said, explaining as if Ernie had, in fact, asked Wayne to mail it for him. Which he hadn't, but he was sort of glad that he had. He hadn't heard back from Luna, but she probably knew that her cat was safe and sound. Lucian hadn't been bothering Ernie much at all, though Ernie knew he was still about, since he'd been having to refill Tot's food dish twice as often as normal... and Tot tended to be quite a glutton on his own.

But hols ended, and the following weekend the train brought back those who had gone home, and things could finally return to normal. On Sunday evening, Ernie received a note from Luna (via Wayne, who she'd already seen, evidently) thanking him for looking after Lucian, and asking if he'd be willing to bring him to breakfast the following morning. Which wasn't any trouble at all. Ernie was rather glad to be getting rid of the fat black cat, after all.

He made his way down to breakfast, much less sleepy this time, considering it was a Monday, and getting up on a school day was never any trouble for him. And unlike his early-morning meeting with Hannah that had never happened, Ernie was pretty sure that Luna would show up today.

He reached the Great Hall, the note from Luna in his pocket and a struggling Lucian in his arms. Tot hadn't been happy to see his friend go, and had tried to follow them out of the portrait hole when Ernie left. He headed over to the Ravenclaw table, scanning it for any sign of Luna -- which there was none of quite yet. She had said he could return the cat at _breakfast_ this morning, right? His hands were full, so he couldn't quite get to the note in his pocket, and continued to stand there a bit awkwardly, waiting for her to--

"Good morning, Ernie!" a voice said from... somewhere around his knees. Startled, he looked around quickly before spotting Luna Lovegood crouching on the floor, mostly underneath the Ravenclaw table.

"Er... why were you _under_ the table?" Ernie asked.

She stood up, flipping a curtain of hair out of her eyes and straightening her necklace. "My quill got away from me, I'm afraid," she said, glancing thoughtfully at the pink quill before sticking it behind her ear and grinning. "So sorry to startle though. I seem to do that a lot, actually."

"I can't imagine why," Ernie said, a bit sarcastically, but he didn't mean it in a bad way, really. More just as an idle comment. "And at least you got it back, right? The quill, I mean."

Luna just smirked, nodding, her quill nodding with her. "Can't afford to lose another one, 'tis worth crawling about to get it back." She bent down a bit, until she was eye-level with Lucian, "And good morning to you, my stout friend."

"Stout's an understatement," Ernie said, passing the cat off to her. "He's _heavy_. I think he missed you, though."

"I do spoil him, I'm afraid," Luna nodded, taking Lucian in her arms carefully. He snuggled up against her affectionately, purring. "Oh my, I think you might be correct! Perhaps all he needed was a friend. It can't be a good feeling to know that your human wants you to share her with a biscuit tin."

"Biscuit tin?"

"Yes, I have a pet biscuit tin, you didn't hear? Compliments of a failed Transfiguration spell in one of McGonagall's classes. Lucian doesn't much like him." She looked back up at Ernie, smiling at him in a way that seemed... rather like a normal human being. Ernie was somewhat surprised -- Luna Lovegood had always seemed a bit more like a space cadet than a human being. "Thank you so much for keeping an eye on him," she said.

"It was no problem," Ernie said, looking down at the huge purring ball of fur. "He just hung out with Tot a lot. I was surprised, Tot's usually kind of mean to other cats. He doesn't get along with Hannah's cat at all..." He shrugged.

"Sometimes the oddest people become friends," Luna nodded sagely, and Ernie smirked as she referred to their cats as people. "Lucian generally doesn't like other boy cats. Or other boys, period." She smirked, nuzzling her cat.

Ernie cleared his throat. "I didn't hear about that. That's... interesting," he offered. "Although I guess I can see why Lucian would be jealous. He seems to like attention."

He surprised himself by reaching out and patting the cat on the head. He hadn't exactly grown fond of him over the past few days, but he at least appreciated Lucian for keeping Tot out of his way for a bit.

"You know, Tot seemed a bit upset with me this morning when I took Lucian away. He tried to chase us out of the common room, but he got to the portrait hole, and backed off. He's a bit scared of the outside world..." Ernie shook his head. His cat, though harmless, was still pretty dumb. "He's going to go back to being a nutter now, I'm sure. He's very annoying sometimes. I admit it's been kind of nice not having a crazy cat walking all over my face at five in the morning all week."

Luna giggled. "We should let them visit each other, then. Lucian seems to know his way about the castle all right," she replied. "Crazy pets can be fun, as long as they are getting along with you. Lucian is a glutton for attention... among other things." She tucked a persistant strand of hair out of her face. "Ah, the joys of cat parenting."

"Tot's not too hard to get along with, he's just... kind of nutters most of the time. He whines, and likes to crawl under piles of clothes and blankets and get lost. And knock things over." He sighed, thinking of the countless essays Tot had knocked ink onto.

"Oh my, that bad? Lucian's mum Cleopatra was like that, always knocking things off of tables. An aura of discourse!"

Yeah... he's just sort of too stupid to know not to knock things over," Ernie replied. "How long have you had Lucian?"

"I've had him since he was born, he was only a kitten my first year."

Ernie smiled. "Tot's still kind of like a kitten, even though he's about four now. I got him second year, he was a stray that wandered into our backyard at home. My parents wouldn't let him live there when I was at school, though, so now he's mine." He looked around a bit, scratching the back of his head. "I'm sure he'd like it if Lucian wanted to come visit again. He's never been out of Hufflepuff, though. Anyway, uh..."

He realized he was rambling, which meant he was running out of things to talk about with the famous Miss Lovegood. He had completed his cat returning mission, after all.

"I better take off. I think I see Hannah over at the Hufflepuff table, so..." He was making a rather poor excuse, because he didn't see Hannah, and really, he wasn't kidding anyone with that. He hadn't spoken with Hannah in forever. Although Luna didn't have much reason to know that. "I'll see you around, all right?"

Luna glanced the way he did, smirking, "Oh, but of course, go along on thy galliant way!" She nodded, giving him a wave. "Thank you again, Ernie. I'm sure they'll run into each other again!" She smiled, and turned back to her table quickly, picking up her parchment and books.

Ernie turned to leave before she did, heading over to the Hufflepuff table, where he sat down, alone, going over the rather strange meeting in his head. He glanced up to see Luna's head bobbing out of the Great Hall as she hurried to take Lucian back to her own common room before getting off to class.

* * *

"...Yoohoo, Earth to MacMillan," someone was saying, waving their hand in front of Ernie's face as he stared at the wall of the common room, which for some reason had become absolutely fascinating in the past few minutes. Shaking his head and looking up, he expected the voice to belong to Hannah -- but it didn't, as Hannah was... wherever Ernie wasn't at all times outside of class. 

"Hi, Megan," he said, blinking up at her. "What's up?"

"Your cat is going nutters, for one." Megan indicated the gray cat running zigzags back and forth across the common room,

"Nothing new," Ernie said, shaking his head. "And he's probably still just mad at me for taking Lucian away."

"Lucian?"

"Luna Lovegood's cat," Ernie said, as if Megan should've known that. "He ended up in our common room somehow," he explained, noting Megan's slightly confused expression. "I looked after him all week til Luna got back."

"I see," Megan said, perching herself on the arm of the couch Ernie was sitting on. "Well, Tot seems to be acting weirder than usual, so... I suppose that could be why."

"You suppose?"

"I suppose." Megan didn't say anything else for a minute, watching Ernie's cat disappear at breakneck speed up the steps to the boys' dormitories. "So what had you so spaced out?"

"What?"

Megan raised an eyebrow at him. "Just now when it took me half a minute to get your attention?" She laughed. "Been hanging out with Luna Lovegood too much, there, haven't you?"

"Have not," Ernie said. "I talked to her for a few minutes in the Great Hall, but that's all. And what does that have to do with anything?"

"Staring at walls, general space-cadet-like behaviour?" Megan suggested. "And an air of defensiveness!" She paused, smirking. "And you haven't asked me about Hannah in the two minutes we've been talking."

"What about Hannah?"

"The first sentence out of your mouth to me every time we've talked lately has had _something _to do with her, ever since she started avoiding you," Megan said, shrugging. "So what were you thinking about?" she asked again.

"Stop being so nosy!" Ernie said with a grin. "Not Hannah, though."

"Wow, tomorrow's biggest headline! Ernie MacMillan thinks about something other than his painful scorning by the girl he fancies! Maybe they'll run it in the _Quibbler_. ...That could be awkward."

"Very tactful, Megan," Ernie said dryly, ignoring the joke about Luna's father's paper, since he wasn't sure if Megan was actually connecting the situation to Luna this time. "Really, makes me feel a lot better."

"I'm sorry," Megan said. "If it makes you feel any better, Hannah hasn't said anything _bad_ about you, either."

"I doesn't make me feel better." It didn't make him feel worse, though, as he was now aware that he really _hadn't_ been thinking of Hannah at all this evening...

"You've got the look again," Megan said, and he snapped out of it and looked back up at her again, still on the arm of the couch. She jumped down. "I'll leave you alone to think, then," she said with a smile. "I'm supposed to be meeting up with Zacharias in the library to help him with transfig..." She looked at her watch. "Ack, two minutes ago! Gotta go."

"See you later, Meg," Ernie said, going back to staring at the wall for a moment and thinking about a girl with blonde hair, before realizing he was doing it. He stood up and headed for the stairs to his dorm instead... a half-smile on his face that he couldn't quite explain.

**

* * *

**

**author's note the third.**

First bits of Dena/Amy RPing in this section! Being their conversation in the Great Hall, so... credit where credit is due there. (As in to Amy for all of the Luna-speak. Hehe. So... rearranged a bit... apologies to Ashley for any ooc-ness that Megan may have experienced, too.

Um. Leave me reviews, I like them.

That is all. Will write more soon I swear :D Having much fun. They are so cute and fluffy. Eeeee.


End file.
